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It's that time again. Joshua has a weak eye, so for the past year, as per the opthalmologist's instructions, we've been patching his good eye every 3 months. He only has to wear it for 6 hours each day, and we do it for 3 weeks each time. It is not a fun time in our home when he has to start wearing it again. Actually, getting in on the mornings is the biggest struggle. He just hates to wear it, so it's all he can do to let us put it on. The patch itself is like a big round band-aid that sticks on over the eye. I actually have to trim the patches before we put them on so that it covers less of his little face (even though they are meant for children). You have to stick it on correctly the first time (which requires him to be still) because you can't take it off and do it again. Poor guy. He tries to be brave, but he really just hates to wear it not only because it's irritating to have it on, but also because it's just harder for him to see well out of his weak eye. Of course, that's the whole point, to make the weak eye work harder so that it becomes stronger. The opthamologist actually told us that if we didn't do anything to correct the weak eye, it would eventually just stop working and he would only use his good eye to see with. Wow - certainly don't want that! So, we carry on with the patch proceedings every 3 months and keep telling him how good this is for him. We've also tried to provide incentive for him to get the patch on in the mornings. You know, there is a fine line between reward and bribery, but we're hoping we're leaning toward reward. :o) However, because this is such an ordeal, we're trying a bigger incentive this time. In the past he's been able to tear off a link to a construction paper chain that we made, one link for each day he has to wear it. Other times he's been able to choose a sticker to put on a calendar for each day he wears it. This time we actually attached a piece of candy to a chart so that now once he puts the patch on, he gets to take the piece of candy off and eat it. Yeah, we're getting desperate. But one little piece of candy is worth not taking 2 hours to get the thing on every morning. Once he has it on, and after we get past the first couple of days, he does fine wearing it. He can't wait until the afternoon when he can take it off, but he usually doesn't try to take it off early or anything. Today is day 2, only 19 more days to go!
Can you tell it's Saturday morning? Sometimes I have to save up my ideas for posts until Daddy is home and I actually have time at the computer. Anyway, on with the post... There are times when I just stop and kind of step outside of a situation, realize what is happening, and just laugh. When you're the mother of multiple small children, there are so many situations like that. For example, I mentioned in a previous post that Luke (who was recently potty trained) is still working on not being afraid of doing #2 in the potty. This results in him waiting for days to actually go. So, whenever he does finally have to go, we move heaven and earth to make the blessed event take place. The last time he finally had to go, I scooped Micah up, then rushed Luke to the bathroom. It was close to Micah's naptime so he was getting fussy and didn't really want to let me put him on the floor. So, in a bathroom that's not much bigger than a large phone booth (enough room for a toilet and sink), Luke is on the potty, I'm sitting on a small stool on the floor, Micah is standing up next to me holding on to my leg, and Joshua is crowding in at the door in hopes that Mommy is going to read some books. Joshua is also excited because of the rewards that "Luke" gets for going #2 in the potty; Joshua obviously freely benefits from Luke's accomplishment. So, here I sit with all 3 of my children crammed into this little bathroom reading books like this is a normal place for the family to spend time together. In spite of the craziness, my children DO think this is normal, and Luke was able to do his business, for which we are all very proud of him. By the time it's all over, Micah was way ready for his nap, but Luke had once again proved himself an exceptional 2 year old boy.
I am constanty repairing things, particularly the boy's books . Even now there is a stack of at least 5 books on my desk that need to be taped up. Sometimes it's just that the binding is coming apart, but often it's because pages have been torn or the book has just been messed up by one of my crazy children. It's not that I mind fixing things for them. I'm just wondering if this is normal. Is it just because they're boys that they have the need to tear things up? Or are my boys extra-destructive? And how do I help them take care of things? In reality, now it's not so much that they are tearing up the books on purpose, it's just that they are so rough with everything. You would think that me growing up with 3 brothers I would be used to such roughness. And in some ways I am, but can we please take care of our books? I am grateful that they at least really enjoy looking at (and now actually reading) lots of books.
On a related topic, my boys can't seem to keep things out of their mouths. Joshua, the almost 5 year old, is the worst. He forever has some toy, or his shirt, or a book, or whatever in his mouth. Luke is still sucking him thumb, so he's not quite as bad about putting other things in his mouth (though he still does it). But, for real, do other kids do this? Obviously Micah is starting to do this more and more, but he's only 8 months old. That doesn't really concern me, but Joshua should have grown out of this by now, shouldn't he?
We have this little poster that tells us what the weather is going to be each day. There's a little place to put the proper weather forecast in it, so it has to be changed each day according to the weather. We've had this thing up for months (since we did "W" week and studied weather), but the boys are still totally into it. I, of course, have a few other things to think about than whether our weather poster is correct or not. However, almost every morning one of the boys goes ballistic if the weather is not correct. There have been times when I'm in my room at the back of the house and one of the boys will come screaming down the hall like his hair is on fire, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" And I'm wondering what in the world has happened now. Then they burst into the room to tell me that it's sunny outside but the weather says cloudy. :o) It's very important to have the proper weather on display. Maybe one of them will grow up to be a weatherman...
Today at lunch Joshua, out of the blue (which is how he always does things it seems), says to me, "Mommy, there is only one God who is in 3 persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Right?" So, I just turn and look at him and brilliantly reply, "Yes." He did kind of catch me off guard. I'm sitting there wondering where he learned that from when he goes on to say, "That's what it said on Sumo of the Opera." (Thank the Lord for Veggie Tales!). He then continues the subject by asking what exactly does that mean. Hopefully my answers were sufficient enough to not only answer him but reinforce the concepts in his little mind. You never know when it will be time to answer theological questions with your children (who are under 5 years old). Doesn't it say in 1 Peter that we are supposed to always be ready to give an answer? :o)
So, a little news on the potty training front. Luke continues to do fabulously; I'm still amazed. He's even staying dry at night and during nap time. So impressive, really. He is a little leary of doing #2 in the potty, which makes him basically hold it for days. We started offering incentive to encourage the #2 issue. He gets a cup of juice at the next meal and a new little car if he goes in the potty. Juice is a MAJOR motivator for Luke because they rarely ever get to drink it; we just drink water here. And apparently the juice and car are a major motivator for Joshua, too, because he's constantly asking Luke if he's gone, ready to go, needs to go. It's actually quite humorous. But at least the motivation is causing Joshua to encourage Luke in his new endeavors and be excited with/for him when he finally does it. I truly am grateful for how well Luke has done!
Luke, though fast approaching 3, is still just 2. :o) I really think he started his 2-ness somewhere around 18 or 20 months. He seemed to do everything earlier than Joshua did. Joshua didn't enter the terrible twos until his second birthday. Luke hit it early, but mostly in the boundless energy kind of way. Overall, Luke's "2" year has been mild compared to what we remember of Joshua's "2". Maybe it's because Joshua was the first 2 year old that we ever actually had to live with, much less raise. Or maybe it's because now Joshua is 4 and we also have Micah. Whatever the difference, Luke's "2" hasn't seemed that bad. Granted, "3" is on its way and that was even more difficult with Joshua, but we'll save that for a different post. For now, let's just talk about the ways Luke does exhibit the fact that he is still 2. Sometimes he just more energy than his little body can contain. He wakes up before any of the brothers and just can't wait to start the day. From the time he could run he has, at times, just run up and down the hallway yelling. FOR NO REASON. He just has that much energy and feels the need to release it. Today was one of those days. You know, when you compare your child to the ball in a pinball machine, just bouncing off the walls (at 7:30 a.m., mind you). And I mean literally bouncing off the walls or Mommy or his brothers or whatever else happens to be in his direct path. Does the term "tasmanian devil" bring a picture to your mind? He's not being bad or disobedient, he just literally can't contain himself. Thankfully he's not always like this. Sometimes, especially as of late, he displays his 2-ness by being overly emotional. I just feel sorry for him in those times, poor guy. At times the smallest thing can set him off and he will just start sobbing. We ask him what's wrong and he just says, "I don't know." When Joshua did this we were always trying to figure out why he was crying, what the problem was. We finally figured out that it was normal for him to do that. With Luke, when he just has more emotion than he knows what to do with we comfort him, love on him, then distract him. It usually doesn't last more than two minutes and he's back to pinball mode anyway. I can only imagine this is magnified with a little girl. Wow.
Recently Joshua and Luke have been acting out the story of David & Goliath. They've been watching Veggie Tales Dave and the Giant Pickle, so their dialogue comes from the movie. It's really very cute. I'll be in the other room and hear one of them in a very deep voice (usually Luke) saying, "Am I dog that you come at me with sticks?" Then Joshua (i.e Dave, i.e. Junior Asparagus) answers, "Well, I don't exactly know what you mean, but you are not a dog! You are a really big guy who wants to beat me up!" Sometimes they throw in their own original dialogue, but whatever they do it's always so fun to hear them pretending together. They also have little David and Goliath action figures that they like to act out the story with. Joshua is totally into this right now. Today Joshua was making up a story with his cars. There was Daddy dump truck, Mommy dump truck, and Mags dump truck. (Mags, you know they consider you part of the fam!) When one of the dump trucks would "talk" to the other ones Joshua would be sure to move them up and and down like they were talking. So fun!
So tonight at dinner Joshua was amazing his parents yet again. Earlier this week we had made some green shamrock cookies in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Tonight after supper we got the cookies out and were trying to decide if there were enough left for our guests tomorrow (a family of 5). Daddy counted 11 cookies, so I said that there wouldn't be enough after we each had one tonight. Then Joshua pipes up, "Well, if each of us only eats half of one tonight, and since Micah doesn't eat cookies yet, then we will have enough for everyone to have one after lunch tomorrow." He was right because that would mean that we would only eat 2 as a family, which would leave 9 for tomorrow, one each for the 4 of us and our 5 friends. Now, lest you think that we have a total brain child, right after that we asked him if we ate 4 cookies then how many would be left and he said 6. :o) (It should have been 7.) Nevertheless, we do think he's pretty smart. And he does come up with things sometimes that just make us look at him and wonder what is really going on in his brain...
By the way, we did each eat one yummy cookie tonight after supper. Then we made brownies for our friends tomorrow. Just in case you were wondering. ;o)
A friend asked about the picture above of Joshua & Luke with their swords and shields. We've been doing letter weeks for homeschool preschool. A few weeks ago we did the letter "K". I spent one day talking about words that start with "kn" to help Joshua with his reading progress. Anyway, we studied knights that day so we made the swords and shields for them to pretend they were knights. I let them watch a few minutes of Lion, Witch, & the Wardrobe so they could see what a knight looked like. They loved that. It was so fun to watch them after we made the swords and shields because their personalities are just so different. Luke was stabbing the air and fighting imaginary bad buys. Then there's Joshua. He was pretending the sword and shield were instruments and wanted to have a parade down the hall. So cute. Luke kept wanting to pretend fight and Joshua just kept asking Luke to stop. I love my boys!
I can't decide which baby stage is my favorite. Each one is just so adorable! How is it that everything a little person can do at any given stage is the cutest thing ever? Okay, teething and separation anxiety are not fun, but everything else - total cuteness. Micah is my 3rd child and I could still just look at him all day long (if I had the time, that is). Right now he is trying his best to get his body to crawl, but so far he can only go backwards. Of course, even without crawling he somehow manages to get himself all over the place. Amazing. He's also working on the transition from sitting up to getting down on his tummy or knees to move. Usually he will just lean all the way over until finally his heavy head tips him over and bangs on the floor. Of course then he screams until I acknowledge that he just bumped his head. He could just save time by screaming first so I will look at him and then maybe help him tip over without bumping his head - but what would he learn from that? :o) Alas, if there's anything I know about kids it's that they're not into saving time. But I digress... Back to baby stages... They grow out of them so fast; each stage (even the not fun ones) only last for such a short time then it's over. I don't want to miss each special one - they're too cute to miss!
What's your favorite baby stage?
This past Sunday I came down with a breast infection that knocked me out of commission for about 3 days. This is the 3rd breast infection I've had with Micah, and the 2nd one was only about a month ago. Interestingly enough I never had one of these infections with either of my first two children. I'm thankful! It's like having the flu, high fever, achy all over, etc. I'm grateful that it only last for a few days. My wonderful husband took over everything (including keeping Luke on track with potty training) beautifully. Thank you, honey! I feel back to normal now - yay!
How ironic that one of my first posts would be about potty stuff. Welcome to my life. :o) Luke will be 3 in May and he's been showing signs of potty readiness for some time now. The book Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day by Teri Crane had been recommended to me in the past, so I read it and decided to give it a try. We had the potty party last Saturday, decorated the bathroom up like a jungle (complete with animal stickers on the wall that took me forever to remove later...), construction paper tree on the door and grass around the bathroom. It was a pretty fun day, actually. I had set it up as "Mommy & Luke Day" in Luke's mind, and he was pretty excited about it. Daddy took Joshua out, and while Micah napped we did the whole potty training thing, which includes lots of treats, special drinks (to encourage potty activity), and total one-on-one time with Mommy. What more could a 2 year old ask for? He spent the morning "teaching" a stuffed doggy how to use the potty, then made the switch to himself going potty after lunch. He made the switch beautifully, as if he'd been just waiting for me to tell him it was his time. That night we had the potty party where we ate pizza and cake & ice cream. Then Luke opened some small presents that we gave him in honor of his new accomplishment. We have continued to reinforce positive potty activity with stickers and small treats, and he has continued to do a fantastic job. It's only been 5 days, but it's been a good five days for Luke, and we are all SO PROUD! He's even stayed dry all week during his nap and nighttime! I am aware that this could all backfire and he could regress at any time, but for now he's doing great and I just feel blessed.Here is a picture of Luke with his doggy that he taught standing in front of his jungle tree.
So, I've finally entered the blog world, thanks to the encouragement and inspiration of a few friends - mostly you, M.E. I don't know how often I'll be able to post entries, but I'm going to try. So many times my boys do something so cute and funny and I always want to share that with others. Usually, however, I never get around to emailing or even talking on the phone to others and the cuteness goes unmentioned. This blog will hopefully remedy that and share my family's great stories with the world, or at least a few close friends and family members who actually care. :o) At any rate, hope you enjoy! And I hope I get my great stories on here now...
